U.S. shadow housing inventory eases as of January -CoreLogic

NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - The number of U.S. homes thatcould end up on the market fell as of January in another sign ofimprovement in the housing sector, data from CoreLogic showed on Tuesday.

As of January there were 2.2 million homes, or nine months'supply, of "shadow inventory," down from 2.6 million homes inJanuary 2012.

Shadow inventory, also known as pending supply, includesproperties that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure orseized by lenders but not listed for sale on multiple listingservices.

The January level was well below the peak hit in January2010 when shadow inventory stood at 3 million properties.

"At this point in the recovery, we are seeing healthyreductions across much of the nation," Anand Nallathambi, chiefexecutive of CoreLogic, said in a statement.

Of the 2.2 million homes, 1 million were seriouslydelinquent, 798,000 were in some stage of foreclosure, and342,000 had already been seized.

A decline in the number of seriously delinquent homes insome states and more distressed properties moving through thepipeline helped to reduce the inventory, CoreLogic said.

The housing market got back on its feet last year as homeprices rose, sales improved and inventories tightened.

Foreclosures have also decreased as lenders have shifted todealing with struggling homeowners earlier on in the process. That trend, along with tighter supply, has eased some of theconcern that the shadow inventory poised to come up for salecould derail the recovery.